


Summary different literature

by superwynette



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:55:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26198212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superwynette/pseuds/superwynette





	Summary different literature

# Pride and Prejudice:

The news that a wealthy young gentleman named Charles Bingley has rented the manor of Netherfield Park causes a great stir in the nearby village of Longbourn, especially in the Bennet household. The Bennets have five unmarried daughters—from oldest to youngest, Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia—and Mrs Bennet is desperate to see them all married. After Mr Bennet pays a social visit to Mr Bingley, the Bennets attend a ball at which Mr Bingley is present. He is taken with Jane and spends much of the evening dancing with her. His close friend, Mr Darcy, is less pleased with the evening and haughtily refuses to dance with Elizabeth, which makes everyone view him as arrogant and obnoxious.

At social functions over subsequent weeks, however, Mr Darcy finds himself increasingly attracted to Elizabeth’s charm and intelligence. Jane’s friendship with Mr Bingley also continues to burgeon, and Jane pays a visit to the Bingley mansion. On her journey to the house, she is caught in a downpour and catches ill, forcing her to stay at Netherfield for several days. To tend to Jane, Elizabeth hikes through muddy fields and arrives with a spattered dress, much to the disdain of the snobbish Miss Bingley, Charles Bingley’s sister. Miss Bingley’s spite only increases when she notices that Darcy, whom she is pursuing, pays quite a bit of attention to Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth and Jane return home, they find Mr Collins visiting their household. Mr Collins is a young clergyman who stands to inherit Mr Bennet’s property, which has been “entailed,” meaning that it can only be passed down to male heirs. Mr Collins is a pompous fool, though he is quite enthralled by the Bennet girls. Shortly after his arrival, he proposes marriage to Elizabeth. She turns him down, wounding his pride. Meanwhile, the Bennet girls have become friendly with militia officers stationed in a nearby town. Among them is Wickham, a handsome young soldier who is friendly toward Elizabeth and tells her how Darcy cruelly cheated him out of an inheritance.

At the beginning of winter, the Bingleys and Darcy leave Netherfield and return to London, much to Jane’s dismay. A further shock arrives with the news that Mr Collins has become engaged to Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth’s best friend and the poor daughter of a local knight. Charlotte explains to Elizabeth that she is getting older and needs the match for financial reasons. Charlotte and Mr Collins get married and Elizabeth promises to visit them at their new home. As winter progresses, Jane visits the city to see friends (hoping also that she might see Mr Bingley). However, Miss Bingley visits her and behaves rudely, while Mr Bingley fails to visit her at all. The marriage prospects for the Bennet girls appear bleak.

That spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte, who now lives near the home of Mr Collins’s patron, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who is also Darcy’s aunt. Darcy calls on Lady Catherine and encounters Elizabeth, whose presence leads him to make several visits to the Collins’s home, where she is staying. One day, he makes a shocking proposal of marriage, which Elizabeth quickly refuses. She tells Darcy that she considers him arrogant and unpleasant, then scolds him for steering Bingley away from Jane and disinheriting Wickham. Darcy leaves her but shortly thereafter delivers a letter to her. In this letter, he admits that he urged Bingley to distance himself from Jane, but claims he did so only because he thought their romance was not serious. As for Wickham, he informs Elizabeth that the young officer is a liar and that the real cause of their disagreement was Wickham’s attempt to elope with his young sister, Georgiana Darcy.

This letter causes Elizabeth to reevaluate her feelings about Darcy. She returns home and acts coldly toward Wickham. The militia is leaving town, which makes the younger, rather man-crazy Bennet girls distraught. Lydia manages to obtain permission from her father to spend the summer with an old colonel in Brighton, where Wickham’s regiment will be stationed. With the arrival of June, Elizabeth goes on another journey, this time with the Gardiners, who are relatives of the Bennets. The trip takes her to the North and eventually to the neighbourhood of Pemberley, Darcy’s estate. She visits Pemberley, after making sure that Darcy is away, and delights in the building and grounds while hearing from Darcy’s servants that he is a wonderful, generous master. Suddenly, Darcy arrives and behaves cordially toward her. Making no mention of his proposal, he entertains the Gardiners and invites Elizabeth to meet his sister.

Shortly thereafter, however, a letter arrives from home, telling Elizabeth that Lydia has eloped with Wickham and that the couple is nowhere to be found, which suggests that they may be living together out of wedlock. Fearful of the disgrace such a situation would bring on her entire family, Elizabeth hastens home. Mr Gardiner and Mr Bennet go off to search for Lydia, but Mr Bennet eventually returns home empty-handed. Just when all hope seems lost, a letter comes from Mr Gardiner saying that the couple has been found and that Wickham has agreed to marry Lydia in exchange for an annual income. The Bennets are convinced that Mr Gardiner has paid off Wickham, but Elizabeth learns that the source of the money, and her family’s salvation, was none other than Darcy.

Now married, Wickham and Lydia return to Longbourn briefly, where Mr Bennet treats them coldly. They then depart for Wickham’s new assignment in the North of England. Shortly thereafter, Bingley returns to Netherfield and resumes his courtship of Jane. Darcy goes to stay with him and pays visits to the Bennets but makes no mention of his desire to marry Elizabeth. Bingley, on the other hand, presses his suit and proposes to Jane, to the delight of everyone but Bingley’s haughty sister. While the family celebrates, Lady Catherine de Bourgh pays a visit to Longbourn. She corners Elizabeth and says that she has heard that Darcy, her nephew, is planning to marry her. Since she considers a Bennet an unsuitable match for a Darcy, Lady Catherine demands that Elizabeth promises to refuse him. Elizabeth spiritedly refuses, saying she is not engaged to Darcy, but she will not promise anything against her happiness. A little later, Elizabeth and Darcy go out walking together and he tells her that his feelings have not altered since the spring. She tenderly accepts his proposal, and both Jane and Elizabeth are married.

# Wuthering Heights:

In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents and Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of _Wuthering Heights_.

Nelly remembers her childhood. As a young girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the manor, Mr Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and returns home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his children. At first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly comes to love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the moors. After his wife’s death, Mr Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.

Three years later, Mr Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife, Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered and favoured son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common labourer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with Catherine, however. One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs Linton works to make her a proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become infatuated with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated.

When Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism and behaves even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.

When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have wronged him. Having come into vast and mysterious wealth, he deviously lends money to the drunken Hindley, knowing that Hindley will increase his debts and fall into deeper despondency. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form she will, she may haunt him, drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her there.

Thirteen years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her temperament is modified by her father’s gentler influence. Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day, however, wandering through the moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays together with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly, whining son even more cruelly than he treated the boy’s mother.

Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors and visits Wuthering Heights to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through letters. When Nelly destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl begins sneaking out at night to spend time with her frail young lover, who asks her to come back and nurse him back to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Linton is pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange—and his revenge upon Edgar Linton—will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries Linton. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.

Nelly’s story ends as she reaches the present. Lockwood, appalled, ends his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and returns to London. However, six months later, he pays a visit to Nelly and learns of further developments in the story. Although Catherine originally mocked Hareton’s ignorance and illiteracy (in an act of retribution, Heathcliff ended Hareton’s education after Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton as they live together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff becomes more and more obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent that he begins speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking on the moors, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and young Catherine inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they plan to be married on the next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.

### Chronology

The story of _Wuthering Heights_ is told through flashbacks recorded in diary entries, and events are often presented out of chronological order—Lockwood’s narrative takes place after Nelly’s narrative, for instance, but is interspersed with Nelly’s story in his journal. Nevertheless, the novel contains enough clues to enable an approximate reconstruction of its chronology, which was elaborately designed by Emily Brontë. For instance, Lockwood’s diary entries are recorded in the late months of 1801 and in September 1802; in 1801, Nelly tells Lockwood that she has lived at Thrushcross Grange for eighteen years, since Catherine’s marriage to Edgar, which must then have occurred in 1783. We know that Catherine was engaged to Edgar for three years and that Nelly was twenty-two when they were engaged, so the engagement must have taken place in 1780, and Nelly must have been born in 1758. Since Nelly is a few years older than Catherine, and since Lockwood comments that Heathcliff is about forty years old in 1801, it stands to reason that Heathcliff and Catherine were born around 1761, three years after Nelly. There are several other clues like this in the novel (such as Hareton’s birth, which occurs in June 1778). The following chronology is based on those clues, and should closely approximate the timing of the novel’s important events. A “~” before date indicates that it cannot be precisely determined from the evidence in the novel, but only closely estimated.

# Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy, has not been happy since his dad died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Unbeknownst to anyone except for Oskar, on the day of the attacks, Oskar’s dad called the house five times. Oskar was home for the fifth call but couldn’t bring himself to pick up the phone. They never recovered his dad’s body and buried an empty casket at his funeral. Oskar is furious that his mom has started to spend time with a man named Ron and worries that she has begun to move on. Oskar suffers from extreme anxiety and imagines whimsical inventions to cope. One night, he decides to look through his dad’s closet and sees a vase hidden on the top shelf. In trying to retrieve it, Oskar drops the vase, and when it shatters, he finds an envelope labelled “Black” that contains a strange key. After doing some research, Oskar decides to visit every person with the last name Black in New York City to try and discover what the key opens.

There is also a parallel storyline about Oskar’s grandparents. The novel includes letters from Oskar’s grandpa, Thomas, to his dad, and letters that his grandma writes to him. Thomas stops speaking not long after immigrating to America out of grief for Anna, his lost love who died in the bombing of Dresden. Thomas communicates by writing one-line sentences in notebooks. He explains that Grandma, Anna’s sister whose name we never learn, encountered him in a bakery and asked him to marry her. Grandma writes her version of their meeting, which doesn’t quite match up with Thomas’s account. According to Grandma, when she reunited with Thomas, he asked her to pose for a sculpture. She agreed and started going to his apartment daily to pose. Although he started touching her for longer and longer to get her into the position he wanted, the sculpture still looked like Anna. Eventually, they had sex, and Grandma proposed. Throughout their marriage, they divide up their apartment into “Nothing” places, where they can go to not exist, and “Something” places. However, the lines blur. After Grandma becomes pregnant, Thomas leaves for Dresden because he doesn’t want to keep living any longer.

Early in Oskar’s search for the key, he meets Abby Black, an epidemiologist who lives in Greenwich Village. Throughout their conversation, he hears a man yelling from the next room, but Abby ignores him. Abby claims to know nothing about the key, but Oskar notices she seems to hold something back. Nevertheless, his search continues alphabetically down his list of people named Black. He eventually meets a man only referred to as Mr Black, who lives in the apartment right above Oskar’s. Mr Black is 103 years old, very wise, and hard of hearing. Oskar invites him to join him in the quest for the key, but Mr Black hasn’t left the house in the twenty-three years since his wife’s death, and he’s turned off his hearing aids. He allows Oskar to turn his hearing aids back on. From then on, Mr Black accompanies Oskar on his travels through the city, encouraging Oskar to get over his fear of public transportation. After they meet with Ruth Black, who lives in the Empire State Building, Mr Black tells Oskar he’s done searching for the lock. Oskar is devastated.

Thomas returns to New York after 9/11 with a desire to try and live again. Grandma at first wants him neither to stay nor leave, but she eventually allows him to stay in the guestroom. She makes him promise never to let Oskar know he’s there. After Thomas sees Oskar for the first time, he starts following him around from a distance. Mr Black eventually confronts Thomas and tries to protect Oskar. When Thomas explains who he is, Mr Black tells him that he should be the one going around with Oskar. Not long after, Oskar finds Thomas in Grandma’s apartment and assumes him to be Grandma’s mysterious renter. Oskar tells Thomas the story of the key and plays him the messages his dad left on the answering machine. Thomas tells Oskar if he ever needs him to toss stones at his window. Oskar later asks Thomas to help him dig up his dad’s grave. Thomas agrees, and they bury Thomas’s unsent letters to his son in the grave. Afterwards, Thomas tries to leave Grandma again, but she follows him to the airport. He doesn’t want to stay or leave, so they stay there, writing.

Not long after Oskar meets Thomas, he notices that there has been a single message on his family’s answering machine for months. He listens to it and discovers that Abby Black called him because she had information about the key. He returns to her house and learns that the key belongs to her ex-husband, William. Furthermore, Oskar’s mom knew about Oskar’s key quest all along and had called Abby Black, along with many of the other Blacks, to tell them Oskar was going to becoming. Confused and frustrated, Oskar goes to William's office. William explains that the key unlocks a safety deposit box that William’s deceased father left for him. William didn’t realize the key was in the vase until after he’d sold the vase to Oskar’s dad at an estate sale. Disappointed that the key had nothing to do with his dad, Oskar goes home. He formulates a plan to dig up his dad’s grave. He looks at a series of photographs he has of a man falling from the World Trade Center. He reorders the photographs so that the man floats back up and imagines his last night with his dad playing out in reverse.

# Lord of the Flies:

Amid a raging war, a plane evacuating a group of schoolboys from Britain is shot down over a deserted tropical island. Two of the boys, Ralph and Piggy, discover a conch shell on the beach, and Piggy realizes it could be used as a horn to summon the other boys. Once assembled, the boys set about electing a leader and devising a way to be rescued. They choose Ralph as their leader, and Ralph appoints another boy, Jack, to be in charge of the boys who will hunt food for the entire group.

Ralph, Jack, and another boy, Simon, set off on an expedition to explore the island. When they return, Ralph declares that they must light a signal fire to attract the attention of passing ships. The boys succeed in igniting some dead wood by focusing sunlight through the lenses of Piggy’s eyeglasses. However, the boys pay more attention to playing than to monitoring the fire, and the flames quickly engulf the forest. A large swath of dead wood burns out of control, and one of the youngest boys in the group disappears, presumably having burned to death.

At first, the boys enjoy their life without grown-ups and spend much of their time splashing in the water and playing games. Ralph, however, complains that they should be maintaining the signal fire and building huts for shelter. The hunters fail in their attempt to catch a wild pig, but their leader, Jack, becomes increasingly preoccupied with the act of hunting.

When a ship passes by on the horizon one day, Ralph and Piggy notice, to their horror, that the signal fire—which had been the hunters’ responsibility to maintain—has burned out. Furious, Ralph accosts Jack, but the hunter has just returned with his first kill, and all the hunters seem gripped with a strange frenzy, reenacting the chase in a kind of wild dance. Piggy criticizes Jack, who hits Piggy across the face. Ralph blows the conch shell and reprimands the boys in a speech intended to restore order. At the meeting, it quickly becomes clear that some of the boys have started to become afraid. The littlest boys, known as “littluns,” have been troubled by nightmares from the beginning, and more and more boys now believe that there is some sort of beast or monster lurking on the island. The older boys try to convince the others at the meeting to think rationally, asking where such a monster could hide during the daytime. One of the littluns suggests that it hides in the sea—a proposition that terrifies the entire group.

Not long after the meeting, some military planes engage in a battle high above the island. The boys, asleep below, do not notice the flashing lights and explosions in the clouds. A parachutist drifts to earth on the signal-fire mountain, dead. Sam and Eric, the twins responsible for watching the fire at night, are asleep and do not see the parachutist land. When the twins wake up, they see the enormous silhouette of his parachute and hear the strange flapping noises it makes. Thinking the island beast is at hand, they rush back to the camp in terror and report that the beast has attacked them.

The boys organize a hunting expedition to search for the monster. Jack and Ralph, who are increasingly at odds, travel up the mountain. They see the silhouette of the parachute from a distance and think that it looks like a huge, deformed ape. The group holds a meeting at which Jack and Ralph tell the others of the sighting. Jack says that Ralph is a coward and that he should be removed from office, but the other boys refuse to vote Ralph out of power. Jack angrily runs away down the beach, calling all the hunters to join him. Ralph rallies the remaining boys to build a new signal fire, this time on the beach rather than on the mountain. They obey, but before they have finished the task, most of them have slipped away to join Jack.

Jack declares himself the leader of the new tribe of hunters and organizes a hunt and a violent, ritual slaughter of a sow to solemnize the occasion. The hunters then decapitate the sow and place its head on a sharpened stake in the jungle as an offering to the beast. Later, encountering the bloody, fly-covered head, Simon has a terrible vision, during which it seems to him that the head is speaking. The voice, which he imagines as belonging to the Lord of the Flies, says that Simon will never escape him, for he exists within all men. Simon faints. When he wakes up, he goes to the mountain, where he sees the dead parachutist. Understanding then that the beast does not exist externally but rather within each boy, Simon travels to the beach to tell the others what he has seen. But the others are amid a chaotic revelry—even Ralph and Piggy have joined Jack’s feast—and when they see Simon’s shadowy figure emerge from the jungle, they fall upon him and kill him with their bare hands and teeth.

The following morning, Ralph and Piggy discuss what they have done. Jack’s hunters attack them and their few followers and steal Piggy’s glasses in the process. Ralph’s group travels to Jack’s stronghold in an attempt to make Jack see reason, but Jack orders Sam and Eric tied up and fights with Ralph. In the ensuing battle, one boy, Roger, rolls a boulder down the mountain, killing Piggy and shattering the conch shell. Ralph barely manages to escape a torrent of spears.

Ralph hides for the rest of the night and the following day, while the others hunt him like an animal. Jack has the other boys ignite the forest to smoke Ralph out of his hiding place. Ralph stays in the forest, where he discovers and destroys the sow’s head, but eventually, he is forced out onto the beach, where he knows the other boys will soon arrive to kill him. Ralph collapses in exhaustion, but when he looks up, he sees a British naval officer standing over him. The officer’s ship noticed the fire raging in the jungle. The other boys reach the beach and stop in their tracks at the sight of the officer. Amazed at the spectacle of this group of bloodthirsty, savage children, the officer asks Ralph to explain. Ralph is overwhelmed by the knowledge that he is safe but, thinking about what has happened on the island, he begins to weep. The other boys begin to sob as well. The officer turns his back so that the boys may regain their composure.

# Ordinary People:

 _Ordinary People_ is set in Lake Forest, Illinois, during the 1970s. The action focuses on the Jarrett family--Calvin and Beth and their son Conrad. Before the action of the book begins, there was a second Jarrett son--Buck--who was killed in a boating accident over a year before the novel begins. After the death of Buck, Conrad became deeply troubled, blaming himself. He tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrists; his attempt failed when Calvin found him, before he died, in the bathtub. After the attempt, Conrad was hospitalized. He went through therapy and befriended Karen, a girl his age who had also tried to kill herself.

The action of the book begins a month after Conrad is released from the hospital. While he is physically cured, he is by no means emotionally cured, and at the request of his father, he begins to see a psychiatrist, Dr Berger. He tells Berger that he doesn't think highly of psychiatry, but he wants Berger to help him gain more control over others so that he can make his father stop worrying about him. Conrad goes back to school, where he has experienced a severe academic downturn ever since Buck's death. He is a junior, and he is a member of the swimming team. However, he feels he is becoming alienated from even some of his best friends, such as Joe Lazenby, and ends up becoming more and more isolated. He decides to quit the swimming team, although he does not tell his parents about the decision until a month later. He spends his time instead of in the library after school. He even goes out for a Coke with his old friend Karen at one point, and he sees that she is doing much better. As the year progresses, he becomes interested in a girl at school named Jeannine Pratt, who is new to Lake Forest. They go out a couple of times before they start to date seriously towards the end of the year. Meanwhile, Conrad continues to see Berger, although it is unclear whether he is making much progress. The novel focuses on his family life, and we see that Conrad is becoming increasingly alienated from his mother, who is not interested in pampering him or dwelling on the past. His relationship with his father is somewhat strained as well.

During the winter, Conrad goes to see a swim meet on a whim, and afterwards, he gets into a fistfight with an old friend who has begun to treat him cruelly. In some ways, it is unclear whether Conrad is getting better. His father grows increasingly concerned about him. That spring, he goes to stay with his grandparents while his parents go on vacation to Houston. There, he spends lots of time with Jeannine. One night, however, he reads in the newspaper that his friend Karen has committed suicide. He is suddenly thrown into shock, and he spends the whole night in a dream-like trance thinking about his time with Karen, his suicide attempt, and the death of his brother. He goes out walking at 2 am to think some more, and he is stopped by a police officer and told to return home. He falls back into a dream at home and then wakes up at dawn. He immediately calls Berger and requests to meet with him. In Berger's office, Conrad has a breakdown and admits that he blames himself for the death of Buck. Berger tells him to stop blaming himself and to stop trying to fill Buck's shoes; Conrad needs to allow himself to feel more even when he feels bad, and he needs to be himself for a change. After this breakdown and release of emotion, Conrad begins to heal substantially, enjoying a great relationship with Jeannine. At the end of the novel, he has moved to Evanston with his family, and in the Epilogue we see him rebuilding his old friendship with Lazenby.

The story of Conrad is told opposite the story of his father, Calvin, who spends most of his time in the novel worrying about Conrad. Calvin is a tax attorney who runs a small firm with his partner, Ray Hanley. Most of the chapters devoted to Calvin depict him by himself, thinking about the past and his son and wife. It is clear from the beginning that Calvin and Beth have serious communication problems. Essentially, Calvin wants to talk through the past with his family; he believes that talking is the way to heal. Beth, however, abhors Calvin's philosophy: she only wants to move on and leave the past behind. She also constantly criticizes her husband for pampering Conrad. She thinks Conrad ought to be left to grow up on his own without parents breathing down his neck all the time. Indeed, Beth thinks that she managed to heal her hurts on her own, and she does not understand why everyone else can't do the same. Calvin and Beth attend parties together and spend lots of time with their friends, and we see them in numerous situations. As the novel progresses, however, the communication rift between Beth and Calvin only widens. They fight more and more about how to treat Conrad. They also fight about vacations. Beth feels that the family must get away from Illinois for Christmas, but Calvin makes them stay in Lake Forest in hopes that they can talk through their problems as a family. In the spring, they take a golfing trip to Houston together; however, things blow up when Beth again rails on Calvin for his obsession with Conrad. When they return to Illinois, they hardly speak to one another until Beth announces to Calvin that she is leaving for Europe. While they do not talk about divorce, their differences seem irrevocable by the end of the novel. After Beth leaves, however, Conrad and Calvin come together for the first time in the novel, saying that they love each other and showing an interest in developing a better relationship. Calvin and Conrad move to Evanston.

# Brave New World:

The novel opens in the Central London Hatching and Conditioning Centre, where the Director of the Hatchery and one of his assistants, Henry Foster, are giving a tour to a group of boys. The boys learn about the Bokanovsky and Podsnap Processes that allow the Hatchery to produce thousands of nearly identical human embryos. During the gestation period, the embryos travel in bottles along a conveyor belt through a factorylike building and are conditioned to belong to one of five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon. The Alpha embryos are destined to become the leaders and thinkers of the World State. Each of the succeeding castes is conditioned to be slightly less physically and intellectually impressive. The Epsilons, stunted and stupefied by oxygen deprivation and chemical treatments, are destined to perform menial labour. Lenina Crowne, an employee at the factory, describes to the boys how she vaccinates embryos destined for tropical climates.

The Director then leads the boys to the Nursery, where they observe a group of Delta infants being reprogrammed to dislike books and flowers. The Director explains that this conditioning helps to make Deltas docile and eager consumers. He then tells the boys about the “hypnopaedic” (sleep-teaching) methods used to teach children the morals of the World State. In a room where older children are napping, a whispering voice is heard repeating a lesson in “Elementary Class Consciousness.”

Outside, the Director shows the boys hundreds of naked children engaged in sexual play and games like “Centrifugal Bumble-puppy.” Mustapha Mond, one of the ten World Controllers, introduces himself to the boys and begins to explain the history of the World State, focusing on the State’s successful efforts to remove strong emotions, desires, and human relationships from society. Meanwhile, inside the Hatchery, Lenina chats in the bathroom with Fanny Crowne about her relationship with Henry Foster. Fanny chides Lenina for going out with Henry almost exclusively for four months, and Lenina admits she is attracted to the strange, somewhat funny-looking Bernard Marx. In another part of the Hatchery, Bernard is enraged when he overhears a conversation between Henry and the Assistant Predestinator about “having” Lenina.

After work, Lenina tells Bernard that she would be happy to accompany him on the trip to the Savage Reservation in New Mexico to which he had invited her. Bernard, overjoyed but embarrassed, flies a helicopter to meet a friend of his, Helmholtz Watson. He and Helmholtz discuss their dissatisfaction with the World State. Bernard is primarily disgruntled because he is too small and weak for his caste; Helmholtz is unhappy because he is too intelligent for his job writing hypnopaedic phrases. In the next few days, Bernard asks his superior, the Director, for permission to visit the Reservation. The Director launches into a story about a visit to the Reservation he had made with a woman twenty years earlier. During a storm, he tells Bernard, the woman was lost and never recovered. Finally, he gives Bernard the permit, and Bernard and Lenina depart for the Reservation, where they get another permit from the Warden. Before heading into the Reservation, Bernard calls Helmholtz and learns that the Director has grown weary of what he sees as Bernard’s difficult and unsocial behaviour and is planning to exile Bernard to Iceland when he returns. Bernard is angry and distraught but decides to head into the Reservation anyway.

On the Reservation, Lenina and Bernard are shocked to see its aged and ill residents; no one in the World State has visible signs of ageing. They witness a religious ritual in which a young man is whipped and find it abhorrent. After the ritual, they meet John, a fair-skinned young man who is isolated from the rest of the village. John tells Bernard about his childhood as the son of a woman named Linda who was rescued by the villagers some twenty years ago. Bernard realizes that Linda is almost certainly the woman mentioned by the Director. Talking to John, he learns that Linda was ostracized because of her willingness to sleep with all the men in the village and that as a result John was raised in isolation from the rest of the village. John explains that he learned to read using a book called _The Chemical and Bacteriological Conditioning of the Embryo_ and _The Complete Works of Shakespeare,_ the latter given to Linda by one of her lovers, Popé. John tells Bernard that he is eager to see the “Other Place”—the “brave new world” that his mother has told him so much about. Bernard invites him to return to the World State with him. John agrees but insists that Linda be allowed to come as well.

While Lenina, disgusted with the Reservation, takes enough soma to knock her out for eighteen hours, Bernard flies to Santa Fe where he calls Mustapha Mond and receives permission to bring John and Linda back to the World State. Meanwhile, John breaks into the house where Lenina is lying intoxicated and unconscious, and barely suppresses his desire to touch her. Bernard, Lenina, John, and Linda fly to the World State, where the Director is waiting to exile Bernard in front of his Alpha coworkers. But Bernard turns the tables by introducing John and Linda. The shame of being a “father”—the very word makes the onlookers laugh nervously—causes the Director to resign, leaving Bernard free to remain in London.

John becomes a hit with London society because of his strange life led on the Reservation. But while touring the factories and schools of the World State, John becomes increasingly disturbed by the society that he sees. His sexual attraction to Lenina remains, but he desires more than simple lust, and he finds himself confused. In the process, he also confuses Lenina, who wonders why John does not wish to have sex with her. As the discoverer and guardian of the “Savage,” Bernard also becomes popular. He quickly takes advantage of his new status, sleeping with many women and hosting dinner parties with important guests, most of whom dislike Bernard but are willing to placate him if it means they get to meet John. One night John refuses to meet the guests, including the Arch-Community Songster, and Bernard’s social standing plummets.

After Bernard introduces them, John and Helmholtz quickly take to each other. John reads Helmholtz parts of _Romeo and Juliet,_ but Helmholtz cannot keep himself from laughing at a serious passage about love, marriage, and parents—ideas that are ridiculous, almost scatological in World State culture.

Fueled by his strange behaviour, Lenina becomes obsessed with John, refusing Henry’s invitation to see a feely. She takes soma and visits John at Bernard’s apartment, where she hopes to seduce him. But John responds to her advances with curses, blows, and lines from Shakespeare. She retreats to the bathroom while he fields a phone call in which he learns that Linda, who has been on permanent soma-holiday since her return, is about to die. At the Hospital for the Dying, he watches her die while a group of lower-caste boys receiving their “death conditioning” wonder why she is so unattractive. The boys are simply curious, but John becomes enraged. After Linda dies, John meets a group of Delta clones who are receiving their soma ration. He tries to convince them to revolt, throwing the soma out the window, and a riot results. Bernard and Helmholtz, hearing of the riot, rush to the scene and come to John’s aid. After the riot is calmed by police with soma vapour, John, Helmholtz, and Bernard are arrested and brought to the office of Mustapha Mond.

John and Mond debate the value of the World State’s policies, John arguing that they dehumanize the residents of the World State and Mond arguing that stability and happiness are more important than humanity. Mond explains that social stability has required the sacrifice of art, science, and religion. John protests that, without these things, human life is not worth living. Bernard reacts wildly when Mond says that he and Helmholtz will be exiled to distant islands, and he is carried from the room. Helmholtz accepts the exile readily, thinking it will give him a chance to write, and soon follows Bernard out of the room. John and Mond continue their conversation. They discuss religion and the use of soma to control negative emotions and social harmony.

John bids Helmholtz and Bernard good-bye. Refused the option of following them to the islands by Mond, he retreats to a lighthouse in the countryside where he gardens and attempts to purify himself by self-flagellation. Curious World State citizens soon catch him in the act, and reporters descend on the lighthouse to film news reports and a feely. After the feely, hordes of people descend on the lighthouse and demand that John whip himself. Lenina comes and approaches John with her arms open. John reacts by brandishing his whip and screaming “Kill it! Kill it!” The intensity of the scene causes an orgy in which John takes part. The next morning he wakes up and, overcome with anger and sadness at his submission to World State society, hangs himself.

# Never Let Me Go:

_Never Let Me Go_ takes place in a dystopian version of late 1990s England, where the lives of ordinary citizens are prolonged through a state-sanctioned program of human cloning. The clones referred to as students, grow up in special institutions away from the outside world. As young adults, they begin to donate their vital organs. All “donors” receive care from designated “carers,” clones who have not yet begun the donation process. The clones continue to donate organs until they “complete,” which is a euphemism for death after the donation of three or four organs. However, this premise is not immediately apparent to the reader. At the start of the novel, narrator Kathy H. merely introduces herself as a thirty-one-year-old carer. She has been a carer for nearly twelve years but will leave her role in a few months. Kathy explains that she wants to revisit her memories of Tommy and Ruth, two friends who grew up with her at the Hailsham school. Kathy does not explain the donation program or mention that Hailsham students are clones.

Although Kathy’s narration is often nonlinear, the novel’s three parts roughly align with three stages in her life. In Part One, Kathy remembers her childhood at Hailsham. She describes her friendship with Ruth, whose temperamental personality contrasts with her quiet demeanour. At Hailsham, Ruth often annoys Kathy by pretending to have special knowledge and privileges. Kathy also describes Tommy, a student known for throwing violent temper tantrums. Tommy is initially an outcast among his peers because he lacks the artistic ability, which the Hailsham staff (part teacher, part parent figures known as “guardians”), and its students value highly. Kathy sympathizes with Tommy and tries to calm him down during one of his tantrums. Tommy later learns to control his temper after a guardian named Miss Lucy assures him that he doesn't need to be creative.

Although the students learn vaguely about the donation program, their guardians shield them from a full understanding of their future. Miss Lucy disagrees with this indirect approach, and often exhibits strange behaviour in front of the students as a result, in one instance telling them explicitly about their futures. After Miss Lucy speaks with Tommy about his artwork, he and Kathy theorize that creativity may be connected to donations. They speculate about Madame, a woman who visits Hailsham to collect the best student artwork. Madame is rumoured to keep this art in a personal gallery. Kathy later encounters Madame in the girls’ dormitory, while Kathy dances to the song “Never Let Me Go.” The song is Kathy’s favourite track on _Songs After Dark_ , a Judy Bridgewater album that is one of her most prized possessions. When the song ends, Kathy sees Madame crying in the doorway. Shortly afterwards, Kathy loses her tape. Tommy’s temper returns during their last summer at Hailsham. Kathy thinks he is upset about his recent breakup with Ruth, whom he has dated for six months. But Tommy is upset about Miss Lucy, who recently told him that she was wrong to dismiss the importance of creativity. Miss Lucy departs Hailsham abruptly, and Tommy mends his relationship with Ruth.

In Part Two, Kathy moves with Ruth and Tommy to a transitional housing facility known as the Cottages. They adjust to their new lives, becoming acquainted with the “veteran” students living there already. Ruth often ignores Tommy and Kathy in her efforts to blend in with the veterans, who are not from Hailsham. Kathy notices that the veterans regard the Hailsham students with awe. One couple, Chrissie and Rodney, are especially interested in Hailsham. They convince Ruth to go with them to Norfolk, where Rodney claims to have seen Ruth’s “possible” in an open-plan office (a “possible” is a human that resembles a specific clone and from whom that clone's DNA may have been copied). Kathy is sceptical of Rodney’s story, especially since it features Ruth’s “dream future” of working in an open-plan office. In the end, Kathy, Tommy, Ruth, Rodney, and Chrissie all drive to Norfolk.

In Norfolk, Chrissie and Rodney ask about a rumoured exception allowing Hailsham couples in love to defer their donations. Ruth pretends to know something about deferrals, which surprises Kathy and Tommy. The students eventually find the open-plan office. Rodney points to a woman in the window, and they all agree that she could be Ruth’s legitimate possible. They follow her to an art gallery, where they realize that the woman does not resemble Ruth. In her disappointment, Ruth says that the students are modelled only on “trash.” Ruth goes off with Chrissie and Rodney. Meanwhile, Tommy and Kathy find a copy of Kathy’s lost tape in a secondhand store. Tommy tells Kathy that he has begun drawing pictures of imaginary animals. He thinks Madame uses the students’ artwork to determine if couples applying for deferrals are truly in love. After Norfolk, Ruth stops talking about her dream future. Tommy shows his drawings to Kathy, who finds them puzzling but captivating. Meanwhile, Kathy’s friendship with Ruth grows increasingly tense. Ruth reveals that she knows Kathy likes Tommy but says that Tommy will never return Kathy’s feelings. Shortly afterwards, Kathy submits her application for carer training and departs.

Part Three focuses on Kathy’s time as a carer. While Kathy is good at her job, the work is both difficult and lonely. She unexpectedly runs into a Hailsham friend named Laura, who is also a carer. They talk about Ruth, who had a bad first donation. They also talk about Hailsham, which has closed. Kathy becomes Ruth’s carer, but their relationship is strained and guarded. One day, Ruth expresses a desire to visit a beached fishing boat near Tommy’s recovery centre. They pick up Tommy on the way to the boat, which they find bleached and crumbling in a marsh. The marsh reminds both Tommy and Ruth of Hailsham. They also discuss Chrissie, who completed on her second donation. On the return trip, Ruth apologizes for keeping Tommy and Kathy apart. She encourages them to pursue a deferral, revealing that she has discovered Madame’s home address. In the weeks that follow, Kathy and Ruth reminisce peacefully about Hailsham and the Cottages. Ruth also encourages Kathy to become Tommy’s carer.

Ruth completes after her second donation. Tommy gives his third donation, and Kathy becomes his carer. They spend their days reading and talking at his recovery centre. Eventually, they also begin to have sex. Hoping to pursue a deferral, they go to visit Madame at the address Ruth provided. Madame invites them inside and listens to their request, after which Miss Emily appears from the next room. Miss Emily says that deferrals do not exist. She explains that Hailsham was part of a progressive movement committed to raising clones more humanely. Madame used to exhibit the students’ artwork to show the outside world that clones had souls. Although the movement once had many supporters, changing public opinion eventually forced Hailsham to close. On the drive back to his recovery centre, Tommy asks Kathy to pull over. He walks into the woods and begins screaming. Kathy goes to Tommy and holds him. Soon after, Tommy gives his fourth donation and completes. Kathy drives to a field in Norfolk, where she allows herself to imagine Tommy on the horizon. Then she drives away.

# One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest:

Chief Bromden, the half-Indian narrator of _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,_ has been a patient in an Oregon psychiatric hospital for ten years. His paranoia is evident from the first lines of the book, and he suffers from hallucinations and delusions. Bromden’s worldview is dominated by his fear of what he calls the Combine, a huge conglomeration that controls society and forces people into conformity. Bromden pretends to be deaf and dumb and tries to go unnoticed, even though he is six feet seven inches tall.

The mental patients, all male, are divided into Acutes, who can be cured, and Chronics, who cannot be cured. They are ruled by Nurse Ratched, a former army nurse who runs the ward with harsh, mechanical precision. During daily Group Meetings, she encourages the Acutes to attack each other in their most vulnerable places, shaming them into submission. If a patient rebels, he is sent to receive electroshock treatments and sometimes a lobotomy, even though both practices have fallen out of favour with the medical community.

When Randle McMurphy arrives as a transfer from the Pendleton Work Farm, Bromden senses that something is different about him. McMurphy swaggers into the ward and introduces himself as a gambling man with a zest for women and cards. After McMurphy experiences his first Group Meeting, he tells the patients that Nurse Ratched is a ball-cutter. The other patients tell him that there is no defying her because in their eyes she is an all-powerful force. McMurphy makes a bet that he can make Ratched lose her temper within a week.

At first, the confrontations between Ratched and McMurphy provide entertainment for the other patients. McMurphy’s insubordination, however, soon stimulates the rest of them into rebellion. The success of his bet hinges on a failed vote to change the television schedule to show the World Series, which is on during the time allotted for cleaning chores. McMurphy stages a protest by sitting in front of the blank television instead of doing his work, and one by one the other patients join him. Nurse Ratched loses control and screams at them. Bromden observes that an outsider would think all of them were crazy, including the nurse.

In Part II, McMurphy, flush with victory, taunts Nurse Ratched and the staff with abandon. Everyone expects him to get sent to the Disturbed ward, but Nurse Ratched keeps him in the regular ward, thinking the patients will soon see that he is just as cowardly as everyone else. McMurphy eventually learns that involuntarily committed patients are stuck in the hospital until the staff decides they are cured. When McMurphy realizes that he is at Nurse Ratched’s mercy, he begins to submit to her authority. By this time, however, he has unintentionally become the leader for the other patients, and they are confused when he stops standing up for them. Cheswick, dismayed when McMurphy fails to join him in a stand against Nurse Ratched, drowns in the pool in a possible suicide.

Cheswick’s death signals to McMurphy that he has unwittingly taken on the responsibility of rehabilitating the other patients. He also witnesses the harsh reality of electroshock therapy and becomes genuinely frightened by the power wielded by the staff. The weight of his obligation to the other patients and his fear for his own life begins to wear down his strength and his sanity. Nevertheless, in Part III, McMurphy arranges a fishing trip for himself and ten other patients. He shows them how to defuse the hostility of the outside world and enables them to feel powerful and masculine as they catch large fish without his help. He also arranges for Billy Bibbit to lose his virginity later in the novel, by making a date between Billy and Candy Starr, a prostitute from Portland.

Back on the ward in Part IV, McMurphy reignites the rebellion by getting into a fistfight with the aides to defend George Sorenson. Bromden joins in, and they are both sent to the Disturbed ward for electroshock therapy. McMurphy acts as if the shock treatments do not affect him, and his heroic reputation grows. Nurse Ratched brings him back to the ward so the other patients can see his weakened state. The patients urge McMurphy to escape, but he has arranged Billy’s date for that night, and he refuses to let Billy down. McMurphy bribes Mr Turkle, the night aide, to sneak Candy into the hospital, and they have a party on the ward. Billy has sex with Candy while McMurphy and the other patients smoke marijuana and drink. Harding tries to get McMurphy to escape with Candy and Sandy to Mexico, but McMurphy is too wasted and falls asleep.

The aides discover the mess the next morning, setting off a series of violent events. When Nurse Ratched finds Billy with Candy, she threatens to tell Billy’s mother. Billy becomes hysterical and commits suicide by cutting his throat. McMurphy attacks Ratched, ripping open the front of her dress and attempting to strangle her. In retaliation, she has him lobotomized, and he returns to the ward as a vegetable. However, Ratched has lost her tyrannical power over the ward. The patients transfer to other wards or check themselves out of the hospital. Bromden suffocates McMurphy in his bed, enabling him to die with some dignity rather than live as a symbol of Ratched’s power. Bromden, having recovered the immense strength that he had believed lost during his time in the mental ward, escapes from the hospital by breaking through a window.

# The Chosen:

_The Chosen_ traces a friendship between two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn at the end of World War II. Reuven Malter, the narrator and one of the novel’s two protagonists, is a traditional Orthodox Jew. He is the son of David Malter, a dedicated scholar and humanitarian. Danny Saunders, the other protagonist, is a brilliant Hasid with a photographic memory and a passion for psychoanalysis. Danny is the son of Reb Saunders, the pious and revered head of a great Hasidic dynasty. Throughout eighteen chapters (divided into three books), the novel tells the story of the friendship that develops between the two boys, and it examines the tensions that arise as their cultures collide with each other and with modern American society.

In Book One, Reuven’s high school softball team plays against Danny’s yeshiva team in a Sunday game. Tension quickly develops as the Hasidic team insults the faith of Reuven and his teammates. The game becomes a kind of holy war for both teams, and the resulting competition is fierce. In the final inning, Reuven is pitching. Danny smacks a line drive at Reuven that hits him in the eye, shattering his glasses and nearly blinding him. Reuven is rushed to the hospital, where he spends a week recuperating. While in the hospital, he becomes friendly with two fellow patients: Tony Savo, an ex-boxer, and Billy Merrit, a young blind boy.

Danny visits Reuven in the hospital to ask his forgiveness, and a tenuous friendship begins. Tentatively, the two boys begin talking about their intellectual interests and their hopes for the future. Danny reveals that he has an astounding intellect, including a photographic memory, and he displays a prodigious knowledge of the Talmud. Danny also confides that he secretly reads every day in the public library, studying books of which his father would disapprove. He also says that a nice older man often recommends books to him. Both boys are surprised to discover that David Malter—Reuven’s father—is this man.

Book Two focuses on the rest of Reuven and Danny’s time in high school. Reuven begins spending Shabbat afternoons at Danny’s house. On their first Sabbath together, Danny introduces Reuven to his father, Rabbi Isaac Saunders. Reuven witnesses a strange ritual: Reb Saunders quizzes Danny in public during their congregation’s Sabbath meal. Reb Saunders also surprises Reuven, asking him a question about the speech Reb Saunders gave. Reuven answers correctly, impressing Reb Saunders.

Danny and Reuven begin spending most afternoons together in the library and Saturdays studying Talmud with Reb Saunders. Reuven learns that Reb Saunders believes in raising his son in silence. Except for discussions of Talmud, Danny’s father never speaks to him directly, though he begins to use Reuven as an indirect means of talking to his son. Outside of the shul, Danny and Reuven spend almost all their free time together and have many conversations.

Meanwhile, almost everyone is obsessed with news about World War II. President Roosevelt’s death in April 1945 saddens the entire country. In May, Reuven and his father celebrate the end of the war in Europe but are shocked by the discovery of concentration camps behind enemy lines. Everyone, even Reb Saunders, is disturbed by the reports of Jewish suffering and death at the hands of the Nazis.

After Reuven’s finals that spring, his father suffers a heart attack, and Reuven goes to live with the Saunders family for the summer. While there, Danny and Reuven talk a great deal, and Reuven learns that Danny plans to study Freudian psychoanalysis instead of inheriting his father’s position in the Hasidic community. Danny hopes that his younger brother Levi can succeed his father in his place. In the fall, both boys begin studying at Hirsch College in Brooklyn.

Book Three chronicles the experiences of Reuven and Danny at Samson Raphael Hirsch Seminary and College. Danny immediately becomes a leader of the Hasidic student body, but he is disappointed by the college’s emphasis on experimental, rather than Freudian, psychology. Meanwhile, Reuven decides that he is firmly committed to becoming a rabbi. Reuven is also worried about his father, whose health is rapidly deteriorating in part due to his frenetic Zionist activity. In school, Danny continues to be frustrated by the psychology curriculum, but Reuven convinces Danny to discuss his differences with his psychology professor, and the resulting conversation is very productive for Danny. With the help of Reuven’s tutelage in mathematics, Danny comes to appreciate the value of the experimental method.

As the conflicts over a Jewish state become more intense, tensions swell among the various student factions at the college. After David Malter gives a highly publicized pro-Zionist speech at Madison Square Garden, Reb Saunders, who is staunchly anti-Zionist, forbids Danny from speaking to Reuven. The silence between the two boys continues into their second year at college. They both take Rav Gershenson’s Talmud class, which allows them to interact indirectly. Yet Reuven misses Danny’s friendship terribly, especially after Reuven’s father suffers a second heart attack. As David Malter recovers, Reuven rigorously studies the Talmud and dazzles the entire class—including Danny—with one particularly brilliant classroom display of knowledge. After Reuven’s father returns from the hospital, the college is staggered by the news that an alumnus of Hirsch died in the fighting in Israel. Finally, during Reuven and Danny’s third year of college, after the United Nations officially declares the creation of the State of Israel and after it becomes clear that Israel will triumph in its battles against the Arabs, Reb Saunders relents and allows the two boys to speak to each other again.

Danny and Reuven quickly resume their intense friendship. Over the summer, Reuven returns to Danny’s shul, goes to Danny’s sister’s wedding, and sees Reb Saunders again. Reuven still harbours anger toward Danny’s father and ignores the older man’s invitation to a Sabbath Talmud discussion. During the boys’ final year at college, Reuven sees Reb Saunders while attending Danny’s brother’s Bar Mitzvah, and again the rabbi invites Reuven over. Reuven ignores the request.

Meanwhile, Danny secretly applies to graduate programs in psychology but soon realizes that his father will inevitably see letters from the schools in the family’s mailbox. One night, after a discussion with his father, Reuven realizes that Reb Saunders is asking him to come over so he can indirectly talk to Danny. Reuven goes to their house, and Reb Saunders, using Reuven as a buffer to speak to Danny, finally explains why he raised Danny in silence. He says he always knew his son had a great mind but was worried that his soul was empty, unable to empathize with the suffering of others. The silence was a way to make Danny explore his soul and feel the suffering of the world. Reb Saunders further reveals that he is aware of Danny’s plan to become a psychologist instead of a rabbi. He apologizes to Reuven for separating the two boys, and he apologizes to Danny for raising him in silence. At the same time, he says he saw no other way to raise Danny to become a true tzaddik—a tzaddik for the world, not only a tzaddik for his congregation. Later, in front of his congregation, he gives his blessing to Danny and the life he has chosen for himself. Danny shaves his beard and earlocks and enrols in a graduate program at Columbia University.

# The Catcher in the Rye:

The Catcher in the Rye is set around the 1950s and is narrated by a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden is not specific about his location while he’s telling the story, but he makes it clear that he is undergoing treatment in a mental hospital or sanatorium. The events he narrates take place in the few days between the end of the fall school term and Christmas when Holden is sixteen years old.

Holden’s story begins on the Saturday following the end of classes at the Pencey prep school in Hagerstown, Pennsylvania. Pencey is Holden’s fourth school; he has already failed out of three others. At Pencey, he has failed four out of five of his classes and has received notice that he is being expelled, but he is not scheduled to return home to Manhattan until Wednesday. He visits his elderly history teacher, Spencer, to say goodbye, but when Spencer tries to reprimand him for his poor academic performance, Holden becomes annoyed.

Back in the dormitory, Holden is further irritated by his unhygienic neighbour, Ackley, and by his roommate, Stradlater. Stradlater spends the evening on a date with Jane Gallagher, a girl whom Holden used to date and whom he still admires. During the evening, Holden grows increasingly nervous about Stradlater’s taking Jane out, and when Stradlater returns, Holden questions him insistently about whether he tried to have sex with her. Stradlater teases Holden, who flies into a rage and attacks Stradlater. Stradlater pins Holden down and bloodies his nose. Holden decides that he’s had enough of Pencey and will go to Manhattan three days early, stay in a hotel, and not tell his parents that he is back.

On the train to New York, Holden meets the mother of one of his fellow Pencey students. Though he thinks this student is a complete “bastard,” he tells the woman made-up stories about how shy her son is and how well respected he is at school. When he arrives at Penn Station, he goes into a phone booth and considers calling several people, but for various reasons, he decides against it. He gets in a cab and asks the cab driver where the ducks in Central Park go when the lagoon freezes, but his question annoys the driver. Holden has the cab driver take him to the Edmont Hotel, where he checks himself in.

From his room at the Edmont, Holden can see into the rooms of some of the guests in the opposite wing. He observes a man putting on silk stockings, high heels, a bra, a corset, and an evening gown. He also sees a man and a woman in another room taking turns spitting mouthfuls of their drinks into each other’s faces and laughing hysterically. He interprets the couple’s behaviour as a form of sexual play and is both upset and aroused by it. After smoking a couple of cigarettes, he calls Faith Cavendish, a woman he has never met but whose number he got from an acquaintance at Princeton. Holden thinks he remembers hearing that she used to be a stripper, and he believes he can persuade her to have sex with him. He calls her, and though she is at first annoyed to be called at such a late hour by a stranger, she eventually suggests that they meet the next day. Holden doesn’t want to wait that long and winds up hanging up without arranging a meeting.

Holden goes downstairs to the Lavender Room and sits at a table, but the waiter realizes he’s a minor and refuses to serve him. He flirts with three women in their thirties, who seem like they’re from out of town and are mostly interested in catching a glimpse of a celebrity. Nevertheless, Holden dances with them and feels that he is “half in love” with the blonde one after seeing how well she dances. After making some wisecracks about his age, they leave, letting him pay their entire tab.

As Holden goes out to the lobby, he starts to think about Jane Gallagher and, in a flashback, recounts how he got to know her. They met while spending a summer vacation in Maine, played golf and checkers, and held hands at the movies. One afternoon, during a game of checkers, her stepfather came onto the porch where they were playing, and when he left Jane began to cry. Holden had moved to sit beside her and kissed her all over her face, but she wouldn’t let him kiss her on the mouth. That was the closest they came to “necking.”

Holden leaves the Edmont and takes a cab to Ernie’s jazz club in Greenwich Village. Again, he asks the cab driver where the ducks in Central Park go in the winter, and this cabbie is even more irritable than the first one. Holden sits alone at a table in Ernie’s and observes the other patrons with distaste. He runs into Lillian Simmons, one of his older brother’s former girlfriends, who invites him to sit with her and her date. Holden says he has to meet someone, leaves and walks back to the Edmont.

Maurice, the elevator operator at the Edmont, offers to send a prostitute to Holden’s room for five dollars, and Holden agrees. A young woman, identifying herself as “Sunny,” arrives at his door. She pulls off her dress, but Holden starts to feel “peculiar” and tries to make conversation with her. He claims that he recently underwent a spinal operation and isn’t sufficiently recovered to have sex with her, but he offers to pay her anyway. She sits on his lap and talks dirty to him, but he insists on paying her five dollars and showing her the door. Sunny returns with Maurice, who demands another five dollars from Holden. When Holden refuses to pay, Maurice punches him in the stomach and leaves him on the floor, while Sunny takes five dollars from his wallet. Holden goes to bed.

He wakes up at ten o’clock on Sunday and calls Sally Hayes, an attractive girl whom he has dated in the past. They arrange to meet for a matinee showing of a Broadway play. He eats breakfast at a sandwich bar, where he converses with two nuns about Romeo and Juliet. He gives the nuns ten dollars. He tries to telephone Jane Gallagher, but her mother answers the phone, and he hangs up. He takes a cab to Central Park to look for his younger sister, Phoebe, but she isn’t there. He helps one of Phoebe’s schoolmates tighten her skate, and the girl tells him that Phoebe might be in the Museum of Natural History. Though he knows that Phoebe’s class wouldn’t be at the museum on a Sunday, he goes there anyway, but when he gets there he decides not to go in and instead takes a cab to the Biltmore Hotel to meet Sally.

Holden and Sally go to the play, and Holden is annoyed that Sally talks with a boy she knows from Andover afterwards. At Sally’s suggestion, they go to Radio City to ice skate. They both skate poorly and decide to get a table instead. Holden tries to explain to Sally why he is unhappy at school and urges her to run away with him to Massachusetts or Vermont and live in a cabin. When she refuses, he calls her a “pain in the ass” and laughs at her when she reacts angrily. She refuses to listen to his apologies and leaves.

Holden calls Jane again, but there is no answer. He calls Carl Luce, a young man who had been Holden’s student advisor at the Wharton School and who is now a student at Columbia University. Luce arranges to meet him for a drink after dinner, and Holden goes to a movie at Radio City to kill time. Holden and Luce meet at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel. At Wooton, Luce had spoken frankly with some of the boys about sex, and Holden tries to draw him into a conversation about it once more. Luce grows irritated by Holden’s juvenile remarks about homosexuals and Luce’s Chinese girlfriend, and he makes an excuse to leave early. Holden continues to drink Scotch and listen to the pianist and singer.

Quite drunk, Holden telephones Sally Hayes and babbles about their Christmas Eve plans. Then he goes to the lagoon in Central Park, where he used to watch the ducks as a child. It takes him a long time to find it, and by the time he does, he is cold. He then decides to sneak into his apartment building and wake his sister, Phoebe. He is forced to admit to Phoebe that he was kicked out of school, which makes her mad at him. When he tries to explain why he hates school, she accuses him of not liking anything. He tells her his fantasy of being “the catcher in the rye,” a person who catches little children as they are about to fall off of a cliff. Phoebe tells him that he has misremembered the poem that he took the image from Robert Burns’s poem says “if a body meets a body, coming through the rye,” not “catch a body.”

Holden calls his former English teacher, Mr Antolini, who tells Holden he can come to his apartment. Mr Antolini asks Holden about his expulsion and tries to counsel him about his future. Holden can’t hide his sleepiness, and Mr Antolini puts him to bed on the couch. Holden awakens to find Mr Antolini stroking his forehead. Thinking that Mr Antolini is making a homosexual overture, Holden hastily excuses himself and leaves, sleeping for a few hours on a bench at Grand Central Station.

Holden goes to Phoebe’s school and sends her a note saying that he is leaving home for good and that she should meet him at lunchtime at the museum. When Phoebe arrives, she is carrying a suitcase full of clothes, and she asks Holden to take her with him. He refuses angrily, and she cries and then refuses to speak to him. Knowing she will follow him, he walks to the zoo and then takes her across the park to a carousel. He buys her a ticket and watches her ride it. It starts to rain heavily, but Holden is so happy watching his sister ride the carousel that he is close to tears.

Holden ends his narrative here, telling the reader that he is not going to tell the story of how he went home and got “sick.” He plans to go to a new school in the fall and is cautiously optimistic about his future.

# Frankenstein:

In a series of letters, Robert Walton, the captain of a ship bound for the North Pole, recounts to his sister back in England the progress of his dangerous mission. Successful early on, the mission is soon interrupted by seas full of impassable ice. Trapped, Walton encounters Victor Frankenstein, who has been travelling by dog-drawn sledge across the ice and is weakened by the cold. Walton takes him aboard ship, helps nurse him back to health, and hears the fantastic tale of the monster that Frankenstein created.

Victor first describes his early life in Geneva. At the end of a blissful childhood spent in the company of Elizabeth Lavenza (his cousin in the 1818 edition, his adopted sister in the 1831 edition) and friend Henry Clerval, Victor enters the university of Ingolstadt to study natural philosophy and chemistry. There, he is consumed by the desire to discover the secret of life and, after several years of research, becomes convinced that he has found it.

Armed with the knowledge he has long been seeking, Victor spends months feverishly fashioning a creature out of old body parts. One climactic night, in the secrecy of his apartment, he brings his creation to life. When he looks at the monstrosity that he has created, however, the sight horrifies him. After a fitful night of sleep, interrupted by the spectre of the monster looming over him, he runs into the streets, eventually wandering in remorse. Victor runs into Henry, who has come to study at the university, and he takes his friend back to his apartment. Though the monster is gone, Victor falls into a feverish illness.

Sickened by his horrific deed, Victor prepares to return to Geneva, to his family, and health. Just before departing Ingolstadt, however, he receives a letter from his father informing him that his youngest brother, William, has been murdered. Grief-stricken, Victor hurries home. While passing through the woods where William was strangled, he catches sight of the monster and becomes convinced that the monster is his brother’s murderer. Arriving in Geneva, Victor finds that Justine Moritz, a kind, gentle girl who had been adopted by the Frankenstein household, has been accused. She is tried, condemned, and executed, despite her assertions of innocence. Victor grows despondent, guilty with the knowledge that the monster he has created bears responsibility for the death of two innocent loved ones.

Hoping to ease his grief, Victor takes a vacation to the mountains. While he is alone one day, crossing an enormous glacier, the monster approaches him. The monster admits to the murder of William but begs for understanding. Lonely, shunned, and forlorn, he says that he struck out at William in a desperate attempt to injure Victor, his cruel creator. The monster begs Victor to create a mate for him, a monster equally grotesque to serve as his sole companion.

Victor refuses at first, horrified by the prospect of creating a second monster. The monster is eloquent and persuasive, however, and he eventually convinces Victor. After returning to Geneva, Victor heads for England, accompanied by Henry, to gather information for the creation of a female monster. Leaving Henry in Scotland, he secludes himself on a desolate island in the Orkneys and works reluctantly at repeating his first success. One night, struck by doubts about the morality of his actions, Victor glances out the window to see the monster glaring in at him with a frightening grin. Horrified by the possible consequences of his work, Victor destroys his new creation. The monster, enraged, vows revenge, swearing that he will be with Victor on Victor’s wedding night.

Later that night, Victor takes a boat out onto a lake and dumps the remains of the second creature in the water. The wind picks up and prevents him from returning to the island. In the morning, he finds himself ashore near an unknown town. Upon landing, he is arrested and informed that he will be tried for a murder discovered the previous night. Victor denies any knowledge of the murder, but when shown the body, he is shocked to behold his friend Henry Clerval, with the mark of the monster’s fingers on his neck. Victor falls ill, raving and feverish, and is kept in prison until his recovery, after which he is acquitted of the crime.

Shortly after returning to Geneva with his father, Victor marries Elizabeth. He fears the monster’s warning and suspects that he will be murdered on his wedding night. To be cautious, he sends Elizabeth away to wait for him. While he awaits the monster, he hears Elizabeth scream and realizes that the monster had been hinting at killing his new bride, not himself. Victor returns home to his father, who dies of grief a short time later. Victor vows to devote the rest of his life to finding the monster and exacting his revenge, and he soon departs to begin his quest.

Victor tracks the monster ever northward into the ice. In a dogsled chase, Victor almost catches up with the monster, but the sea beneath them swells and the ice breaks, leaving an unbridgeable gap between them. At this point, Walton encounters Victor, and the narrative catches up to the time of Walton’s fourth letter to his sister.

Walton tells the remainder of the story in another series of letters to his sister. Victor, already ill when the two men meet, worsens and dies shortly thereafter. When Walton returns, several days later, to the room in which the body lies, he is startled to see the monster weeping over Victor. The monster tells Walton of his immense solitude, suffering, hatred, and remorse. He asserts that now that his creator has died, he too can end his suffering. The monster then departs for the northernmost ice to die.

# Dracula:

Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, travels to Castle Dracula in the Eastern European country of Transylvania to conclude a real estate transaction with a nobleman named Count Dracula. As Harker wends his way through the picturesque countryside, the local peasants warn him about his destination, giving him crucifixes and other charms against evil and uttering strange words that Harker later translates into “vampire.”

Frightened but no less determined, Harker meets the count’s carriage as planned. The journey to the castle is harrowing, and the carriage is nearly attacked by angry wolves along the way. Upon arriving at the crumbling old castle, Harker finds that the elderly Dracula is a well educated and hospitable gentleman. After only a few days, however, Harker realizes that he is effectively a prisoner in the castle.

The more Harker investigates the nature of his confinement, the more uneasy he becomes. He realizes that the count possesses supernatural powers and diabolical ambitions. One evening, Harker is nearly attacked by three beautiful and seductive female vampires, but the count staves them off, telling the vampires that Harker belongs to him. Fearing for his life, Harker attempts to escape from the castle by climbing down the walls.

Meanwhile, in England, Harker’s fiancée, Mina Murray, corresponds with her friend Lucy Westenra. Lucy has received marriage proposals from three men—Dr. John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and an American named Quincey Morris. Though saddened by the fact that she must reject two of these suitors, Lucy accepts Holmwood’s proposal.

Mina visits Lucy at the seaside town of Whitby. A Russian ship is wrecked on the shore near the town with all its crew missing and its captain dead. The only sign of life aboard is a large dog that bounds ashore and disappears into the countryside; the only cargo is a set of fifty boxes of earth shipped from Castle Dracula. Not long after, Lucy suddenly begins sleepwalking. One night, Mina finds Lucy in the town cemetery and believes she sees a dark form with glowing red eyes bending over Lucy. Lucy becomes pale and ill, and she bears two tiny red marks at her throat, for which -neither Dr Seward nor Mina can account. Unable to arrive at a satisfactory diagnosis, Dr Seward sends for his old mentor, Professor Van Helsing.

Suffering from brain fever, Harker reappears in the city of Buda-Pest. Mina goes to join him. Van Helsing arrives in Whitby, and, after his initial examination of Lucy, orders that her chambers be covered with garlic—a traditional charm against vampires. For a time, this effort seems to stave off Lucy’s illness. She begins to recover, but her mother, unaware of the garlic’s power, unwittingly removes the odiferous plants from the room, leaving Lucy vulnerable to further attack.

Seward and Van Helsing spend several days trying to revive Lucy, performing four blood transfusions. Their efforts ultimately come to nothing. One night, the men momentarily let down their guard, and a wolf breaks into the Westenra house. The shock gives Lucy’s mother a fatal heart attack, and the wolf attacks Lucy, killing her.

After Lucy’s death, Van Helsing leads Holmwood, Seward, and Quincey Morris to her tomb. Van Helsing convinces the other men that Lucy belongs to the “Un-Dead”—in other words, she has been transformed into a vampire-like Dracula. The men remain unconvinced until they see Lucy preying on a defenceless child, which convinces them that she must be destroyed. They agree to follow the ritual of vampire slaying to ensure that Lucy’s soul will return to eternal rest. While the undead Lucy sleeps, Holmwood plunges a stake through her heart. The men then cut off her head and stuff her mouth with garlic. After this deed is done, they pledge to destroy Dracula himself.

Now married, Mina and Jonathan return to England and join forces with the others. Mina helps Van Helsing collect the various diary and journal entries that Harker, Seward, and the others have written, attempting to piece together a narrative that will lead them to the count. Learning all they can of Dracula’s affairs, Van Helsing and his band track down the boxes of the earth that the count uses as a sanctuary during the night from Dracula’s castle. Their efforts seem to be going well, but then one of Dr Seward’s mental patients, Renfield, lets Dracula into the asylum where the others are staying, allowing the count to prey upon Mina.

As Mina begins the slow change into a vampire, the men sterilize the boxes of earth, forcing Dracula to flee to the safety of his native Transylvania. The men pursue the count, dividing their forces and tracking him across land and sea. Van Helsing takes Mina with him, and they cleanse Castle Dracula by killing the three female vampires and sealing the entrances with sacred objects. The others catch up with the count just as he is about to reach his castle, and Jonathan and Quincey use knives to destroy him.

# The Color Purple:

Celie, the protagonist and narrator of _The Color Purple_ , is a poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old black girl living in rural Georgia. Celie starts writing letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her. Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once. Celie gave birth to a girl, whom her father stole and presumably killed in the woods. Celie has a second child, a boy, whom her father also steals. Celie’s mother becomes seriously ill and dies. Alphonso brings home a new wife but continues to abuse Celie.

Celie and her bright, pretty younger sister, Nettie, learn that a man known only as Mr. ______ wants to marry Nettie. Mr. ______ has a lover named Shug Avery, a sultry lounge singer whose photograph fascinates Celie. Alphonso refuses to let Nettie marry and instead offers Mr. ______ the “ugly” Celie as a bride. Mr. ______ eventually accepts the offer and takes Celie into a difficult and joyless married life. Nettie runs away from Alphonso and takes refuge at Celie’s house. Mr. ______ still desires Nettie, and when he advances on her she flees for her safety. Never hearing from Nettie again, Celie assumes she is dead.

Mr. ______’s sister Kate feels sorry for Celie and tells her to fight back against Mr. ______ rather than submit to his abuses. Harpo, Mr. ______’s son, falls in love with a large, spunky girl named Sofia. Shug Avery comes to town to sing at a local bar, but Celie is not allowed to go see her. Sofia becomes pregnant and marries Harpo. Celie is amazed by Sofia’s defiance in the face of Harpo’s and Mr. ______’s attempts to treat Sofia as an inferior. Harpo’s attempts to beat Sofia into submission consistently fail, as Sofia is by far the physically stronger of the two.

Shug falls ill and Mr. ______ takes her into his house. Shug is initially rude to Celie, but the two women become friends as Celie takes charge of nursing Shug. Celie finds herself infatuated with Shug and attracted to her sexually. Frustrated with Harpo’s consistent attempts to subordinate her, Sofia moves out, taking her children. Several months later, Harpo opens a juke joint where Shug sings nightly. Celie grows confused over her feelings toward Shug.

Shug decides to stay when she learns that Mr. ______ beats Celie when Shug is away. Shug and Celie’s relationship grows intimate, and Shug begins to ask Celie questions about sex. Sofia returns for a visit and promptly gets in a fight with Harpo’s new girlfriend, Squeak. In town one day, the mayor’s wife, Miss Millie, asks Sofia to work as her maid. Sofia answers with a sassy “Hell no.” When the mayor slaps Sofia for her insubordination, she returns the blow, knocking the mayor down. Sofia is sent to jail. Squeak’s attempts to get Sofia freed are futile. Sofia is sentenced to work for twelve years as the mayor’s maid.

Shug returns with a new husband, Grady. Despite her marriage, Shug instigates a sexual relationship with Celie, and the two frequently share the same bed. One night Shug asks Celie about her sister. Celie assumes Nettie is dead because she had promised to write to Celie but never did. Shug says she has seen Mr. ______ hide away numerous mysterious letters that have arrived in the mail. Shug manages to get her hands on one of these letters, and they find it is from Nettie. Searching through Mr. ______’s trunk, Celie and Shug find dozens of letters that Nettie has sent to Celie over the years. Overcome with emotion, Celie reads the letters in order, wondering how to keep herself from killing Mr. ______.

The letters indicate that Nettie befriended a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine, and travelled with them to Africa to do ministry work. Samuel and Corrine have two adopted children, Olivia and Adam. Nettie and Corrine become close friends, but Corrine, noticing that her adopted children resemble Nettie, wonders if Nettie and Samuel have a secret past. Increasingly suspicious, Corrine tries to limit Nettie’s role within her family.

Nettie becomes disillusioned with her missionary experience, as she finds the Africans self-centred and obstinate. Corrine becomes ill with a fever. Nettie asks Samuel to tell her how he adopted Olivia and Adam. Based on Samuel’s story, Nettie realizes that the two children are Celie’s biological children, alive after all. Nettie also learns that Alphonso is only Nettie and Celie’s step-father, not their real father. Their real father was a storeowner whom white men lynched because they resented his success. Alphonso told Celie and Nettie he was their real father because he wanted to inherit the house and property that was once their mother’s.

Nettie confesses to Samuel and Corrine that she is, in fact, their children’s biological aunt. The gravely ill Corrine refuses to believe Nettie. Corrine dies, but accepts Nettie’s story and feels reconciled just before her death. Meanwhile, Celie visits Alphonso, who -confirms Nettie’s story, admitting that he is only the women’s stepfather. Celie begins to lose some of her faith in God, but Shug tries to get her to reimagine God in her way, rather than in the traditional image of the old, bearded white man.

The mayor releases Sofia from her servitude six months early. At dinner one night, Celie finally releases her pent-up rage, angrily cursing Mr. ______ for his years of abuse. Shug announces that she and Celie are moving to Tennessee, and Squeak decides to go with them. In Tennessee, Celie spends her time designing and sewing individually tailored pairs of pants, eventually turning her hobby into a business. Celie returns to Georgia for a visit and finds that Mr. ______ has reformed his ways and that Alphonso has died. Alphonso’s house and land are now hers, so she moves there.

Meanwhile, Nettie and Samuel marry and prepare to return to America. Before they leave, Samuel’s son, Adam, marries Tashi, a native African girl. Following African tradition, Tashi undergoes the painful rituals of female circumcision and facial scarring. In solidarity, Adam undergoes the same facial scarring ritual.

Celie and Mr. ______ reconcile and begin to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. Now independent financially, spiritually, and emotionally, Celie is no longer bothered by Shug’s passing flings with younger men. Sofia remarries Harpo and now works in Celie’s clothing store. Nettie finally returns to America with Samuel and the children. Emotionally drained but exhilarated by the reunion with her sister, Celie notes that though she and Nettie are now old, she has never in her life felt younger.


End file.
